A’s score another 2-1 win over Pirates, Balfour gets another save

If the A’s and the Pirates do meet in the World Series – they’re both division leaders right now – get ready for a bunch of low-scoring, high tension games.

For the second night in a row, the A’s beat the Pirates 2-1, with Grant Balfour earning the save, this one his 42nd in a row, an ongoing team record. He allowed a single by Jose Tabata to start the inning, then struck out Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez before getting Russell Martin to hit a tapper to third. Josh Donaldson made a great play running in fast to get to it and throw to first in time.

“We kind of expected it,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of the low-scoring games. “Coming in, you look up and down their staff and everyone has a low ERA. They’re first in the NL in pitching and now we’re first in the AL.”

The A’s didn’t get much against right-hander Gerrit Cole, but a teeny two-out push in the fourth got them what they needed. John Jaso doubled down the third-base line, going the opposite way against the shift, and Brandon Moss crushed the first pitch he got way out to right.

It was Moss’ team-leading 16th homer, putting him one ahead of Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes – who was named to the AL team for the Home Run Derby today. The A’s are 28-6 in games in which Moss has homered in his Oakland career. He said he was sitting on a changeup from Cole, and he got it.

Dan Straily, sent down after the game to make room for callup Sonny Gray, was terrific tonight in earning his sixth win. Alvarez led off the second inning with a homer – one of only two hits Straily allowed in 6 1/3 innings. He also walked three, and when he walked Alvalrez to open the seventh and Alvarez was bunted to second, Straily was lifted in favor of Sean Doolittle.

What Straily most wanted to discuss was the four-pitch walk he drew in the fifth inning. He said he kept expecting for home-plate umpire Wally Bell to call a strike, and even had to be prompted to go to first after ball four.

Once there, Straily said, “I thought I had a good secondary lead and I looked in the dugout and they were all laughing at me. In hindsight, I was about 3 feet from the bag.”

Tuesday was Straily’s first-ever opportunity to hit in the big leagues, and “It was pointed out to me I’d reached base before Grant Green,” Straily said. “Grant Green pointed it out.”

Straily said that he knew before the game of his pending demotion. “It’s simple, I’m not needed until after the All-Star break,” he said. “I could have thrown a perfect game and I would have been sent down.”

He knows that’s the lot of a fifth starter, and he’s happy for Gray, his friend. “He’s ready,” Straily said.

Melvin said that Gray will come up to get his feet wet, but he also said, “We wouldn’t bring him up without thinking he could contribute in a prominent role.” Melvin hinted that if one of the A’s set-up men, Doolittle and Cook, isn’t available, Gray might even get work there, though Melvin would like to start him off with a relatively easy situation.

Tuesday’s game was delayed an hour and 42 minutes by the threat of rain, which didn’t appear. The A’s spent the break bowling at water bottles and playing bottle cap baseball. “At one point, it was getting too funny, so I had to leave to focus,” Straily said.